China achieved the first controlled recovery of an orbital-class rocket booster on 10 July, when a Long March 10B first stage executed a vertical descent onto a net-equipped offshore platform in the South China Sea. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) confirmed the booster separated from the upper stage roughly two minutes after lift-off from Wenchang and was captured approximately six minutes later. Shares of China Spacesat and China Satellite Communications each rose by the 10 per cent daily limit on mainland exchanges following the announcement.

The 63-metre, kerosene-fuelled booster used landing hooks to engage a cable-net system mounted on a recovery vessel, a method that differs from the autonomous leg-based landings employed by SpaceX’s Falcon 9. CASC stated the approach reduces onboard structural mass and widens the capture window. The upper stage, powered by a liquid-oxygen-and-methane engine, delivered a payload to low-Earth orbit. The vehicle is designed to carry up to 16 tonnes in reusable mode and forms the commercial cargo variant of the Long March 10 family, which is being developed for crewed lunar missions before 2030.

Viewed from Washington and European capitals, the test reshapes the competitive landscape in medium-lift reusable rocketry, a segment SpaceX has dominated since its first Falcon 9 booster landing in 2015. Blue Origin recovered a New Glenn booster in November 2025. Chinese state media described the event as a “historic breakthrough” and the start of the country’s “rocket recovery era.” Analysts in London and Moscow note that the achievement follows two failed Chinese recovery attempts in late 2025, by the private firm LandSpace and the state-owned Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, and that multiple other Chinese reusable launchers—including Zhuque-3, Tianlong-3, and Hyperbola-3—are in development. Russian commentary highlights that the net-capture technique represents a distinct engineering path, while Indian and Middle Eastern coverage frames the test as a step toward lower-cost satellite constellation deployment.

CASC plans to reuse the recovered booster in a second launch before the end of 2026. The flight also validates subsystems for the larger Long March 10 crewed lunar variant, which will use 21 YF-100K engines at lift-off. The next factual milestone to watch is the re-flight of this specific stage, which would demonstrate the full reuse cycle and provide data on refurbishment costs and turnaround time.